*This is a 10min promo for a long format documentary.
In the vast Western Desert of Australia, Bill Whiskey is a healer. A Ngangkari. Powerful and hugely respected.
Bill Whiskey is almost 90 and was well into his teenage years when he first met a white fella. He was born the traditional way, in a shallow hole scooped out of the red dirt in the centre of Australia.
Today, Bill Whiskey is one of Australias most successful artists. His paintings hang in museums and galleries across the world. Amazingly, he has only been painting for two years.
When Bill Whiskeys canvas is chosen to hang in Australias most prestigious Aboriginal art exhibition, his closest friends promise to take him to see it. But Bill Whiskey has never left his country. Hes never seen a city. Never seen the ocean. Bill Whiskey has never seen his paintings on a gallery wall. This documentary film is Bill Whiskeys journey to all those places.
Being out of his country Bill Whiskey is overwhelmed, fearful and homesick.
He wants to go home to his birthplace where the dots of his paintings come alive. A place hes only ever been back to once in his life.
There, That Old Man takes us into his dreaming, into his painting, into a world tens of thousands of years old. A place of mystery and legend where no white fella has been before. Until now.